Bee Pathogen Programme

Bees are an important part of New Zealand's ecosystems and primary industries. Find out about the Bee Pathogen Programme, how it protects our apiculturists, and how we're getting ready to respond to potential biosecurity threats.

About the programme

The Bee Pathogen Programme is helping to secure our apiculture (beekeeping) sector and protect New Zealand’s increasing international trade in bee products.

Sampling for the Bee Pathogen Programme ran from September 2016 to March 2019. The 300 samples we collected contain over 130,000 honey bees which all need to be examined. Our experts are now working through this huge archive of material.

Once the data has been evaluated, it will be made available to the beekeeping industry and researchers. The data will be analysed further then.

Biosecurity New Zealand is aiming to release its conclusions from the programme in early 2020.

They also collected bee samples, and recorded information such as how the hives were managed.

Bee samples were sent to both our Animal Health Laboratory (AHL) and our Plant Health and Environment Laboratory (PHEL) for analysis. The AHL checked bee samples for viruses including foulbroods and syndromes. The PHEL determined Varroa and Nosema counts for each hive.